http://apostoliclive.com/play_audio.php?audio=4724
Text: I Samuel 30:1-8
“And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to
Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag,
and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire;
2 And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they
slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their
way.
3 So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was
burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were
taken captives.
4 Then David and the people that were with him lifted up
their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep.
5 And David's two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the
Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.
6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of
stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his
sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
7 And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech's son, I
pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to
David.
8 And David enquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue
after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou
shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.”
Title: Thou Shalt Recover All or The Revival of Recovery –
or something…
I. – The Despair of Loss
Background: -
-Ziklag was given to David by King Achish of the Philistines
in 1 Samuel 27 when David was run out of Israel by Saul, it was his own
personal city of refuge for him and his family (out in the country because he
told Achish he really wasn’t worthy or interested in staying in the royal city
of Gath)(kind of a low point for a man that was once anointed to be king to shy
away from royalty), and his band of 600 mighty men; located at the southern end
of Judah; a military base, a place where
many came over from Saul’s Israel and sided with David, no doubt a place of
regrouping – the Bible says David and his men dwelled in Ziklag for a year and
four months prior to following incident…
From I Samuel 29, David was ready to go fight WITH the
Philistines against Saul and Israel.
-Philistines princes convinced King Achish (who had a soft
spot in his heart for David, and a great deal of respect) to send him back home
to Ziklag (because they didn’t trust David – this is the same David that took
out Goliath, single-handedly gained a dowry of 200 Philistine foreskins for
Saul’s daughter Michal’s hand in marriage, killed his 10,000s and so forth –
who could blame them)
-v1.) – Amelekites (what Saul kept alive) raid Ziklag and
burn down the town. It wasn’t much, but
hey it was home.
V2.) – women, all, great and small taken captive and carried
away
-the frustrations of everyday losses (keys, cell phone, five
dollar bill…losing the car in the mall, a certain article of clothing)
- Things you may have lost: focus, passion, joy, financial
security,
-see also lost sheep.
-if we’re not careful, we’ll allow satan to convince us that
what he stole is rightfully his – (Judges 11)
V4.) weeping until they ran out of tears – when what you’ve
lost is so great that it drives you to deep sorrow, anguish, regret (if only I
had been home to protect the city, if only, if only…)
V6.) just when things couldn’t get any worse (it didn’t
start out that bad for would be king)
-his own king Saul turned on him, became a jealous madman
-Philistines didn’t want him because they couldn’t trust him
-Amelikites sneak attack his last consolation in life and
burn down what was left, and took his family away – no Israel, no king, no
Philistines, Amelekite problems that could have been prevented had Saul obeyed
God, his family, his wives and kids, and his stuff is gone, he doesn’t even
have a house to go to because its in ashes
-well, at least I still got this motley crew of 600 mighty
men…but when he looked up for some comfort and and some encouragement from his
fellow soldiers they all got stones in their hands getting ready to excommunicate
the man that nobody wanted-
-it was probably right around this point in time that David
was thinking to himself “I don’t want to be anointed anymore…”
-anybody ever been there before?
-we’ve got a promise of recovery from our God! This is the season to get back what you’ve
lost…
II. – The Promise (and command of) Recovery
(Thou Shalt Recover…)
-Definitions: RECOVER: “1. To get back, regain.
2a. To bring back to a normal position or condition, b.
RESCUE
3b. to gain by legal process
5. – To find or IDENTIFY again (speaks to a recovery of lost
identity)
6b. – To save from loss and restore usefulness (reclaim)
To obtain a final legal judgment in one’s favor – “now are
ye justified” “declared righteous”
-Everyday examples…
- You MUST recover…
-Recovery is a matter of spiritual life and death-
-II Kings 20:1-7
“In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet
Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Set
thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live.
2 Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the
Lord, saying,
3 I beseech thee, O Lord, remember now how I have walked
before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good
in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore.
4 And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the
middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people,
Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I
have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go
up unto the house of the Lord.
6 And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will
deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will
defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David's sake.
7 And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs. And they took and
laid it on the boil, and he recovered.”
I Kings 1:2-4
-“And Ahaziah fell down through a lattice in his upper
chamber that was in Samaria, and was sick: and he sent messengers, and said
unto them, Go, enquire of Baalzebub
the god of Ekron whether I shall recover
of this disease.
3 But the angel of the Lord said to Elijah the Tishbite,
Arise, go up to meet the messengers of the king of Samaria, and say unto them,
Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that ye go to enquire of
Baalzebub the god of Ekron?
4 Now therefore thus saith the Lord, Thou shalt not come
down from that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt surely die. And Elijah departed.”
-YOU will not recover if you’re leaning on the wrong god.
(money, education, you’re intelligence, you’re pedigree – none of that has the
ability to get you’re spiritual stuff back…
-for every apostolic that’s too exhausted to pursue, God
will send us an Egyptian to help us…
-You can recover, because you’ve got a God that’s in the
recovery business.
-Luke 4:18 – “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised…”
John 5:9 – “Instantly the man became well and recovered his strength and picked up
his bed and walked. But that happened on the Sabbath.”
-recovered strength to walk again
- (Mark 16:18) “lay hands on the sick and they shall RECOVER” (we need to have a pursuit and
recovery of the miraculous among the apostolics)
-ex. Christ marches into hell and takes back his keys…
-you can recover, because when there is loss the law of
exchange kicks in
-Heaven gained a Bro Millstid this year, there must be an
exchange in the earth – seven more churches!
III – The Necessity of Pursuit
-YOU WILL NOT POSSESS WHAT YOU DO NOT PURSUE!!
-you will NOT recover if you do not PURSUE- your stuff is
not coming back on its own…you have to pursue!
-It’s easy to lose something when it moves forward and you
stay put…(pillar of cloud by day, fire by night – the pillar moves, you move or
you get yourself lost… - “led by the spirit”
-definition: to follow after in order to overtake, capture,
kill or defeat
-to find or employ measures to obtain or accomplish: seek
(ask, seek, knock)
-proceed along (keep moving forward)
-CHASE, to go in pursuit of…
HEBREW WORD: radaph – RUN after (usually with hostile
intent) – “the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by
force…” chase, put to flight, follow, HUNT
-the frustrations of everyday losses (keys, cell phone, five
dollar bill…losing the car in the mall, a certain article of clothing) – you
will stop your day in your tracks to find these things…what will you do when
you lose something that’s vital and internal, and eternal; what are you willing
to do to get it back?
-van story
-You can pursue, because you’ve got a God that is in the
business of pursuit…
-According to Luke 19:10 - Jesus “came to seek and to save
that which was lost…” (possibly move this to section 2 (a God that is in the
recovery business area.) – am I willing to go through a cross to get my stuff
back?
-(really
feel this part out, don’t kill the message. ) – Saul recovered his vision
because 1.) he pursued obedience to God’s word to go into the city and 2.)
because Ananias, against his better judgment pursued Saul…
-The
established church must pursue ministry connection with the new ones IN SPITE
OF THE INHERENT RISK INVOLVED.
-we
cannot afford to be territorial; the fact of the matter is, Ananias, when I get
through with Saul, he’ll be the one preaching the conferences and planting the
churches – and WE HAVE TO BE OK WITH THAT
-It’s
not the Sauls I’m worried about, it’s the Judaizers.
-Matthew
6:33 - we must pursue the kingdom and
“all these things shall be added” – the kingdom isn’t just people that look
like you, dress like you – help me Holy Ghost right here – we will not RECOVER
the miraculous until we PURSUE the KINGDOM
-Naaman recovered in II Kings 5 because 1. His king pursued
the prophet Elisha, and 2. Because Naaman pursued the river Jordan (obedience)
-HOW DO I PURSUE?!-
1. PREACH TO YOURSELF – “David encouraged himself in the
Lord…”
2. PRAISE GOD ANYHOW – “bring me hither the ephod…” “garment
of praise”
3. PRAY – PRAY –PRAY – “David inquired of the Lord…”
-If we do not preach, praise, and pray, we will NOT recover
what was lost!
-“covet the best gifts” we have to want the spiritual bad
enough to go looking for it…
CONLCLUSION – It’s Time To Recover What You’ve
Lost
-restore sevenfold…
“And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread
abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the
great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of
the land of Judah.
-now the enemy has David’s wives, kids, and his stuff; his
joy, his peace, his family…
-It’s high time that we cancel hell’s party…crash hell’s
party – “the gates of hell shall not prevail…” against a church that is in pursuit
of what its lost…
-let me try it again, you need to march into the hell in
your life, in your emotions, in your mind, in your relationships, in Jesus’
take back what God gave to you
17 And David smote them from the twilight even unto the
evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred
young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.
18 And David recovered all
that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.
19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor
great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had
taken to them: David recovered all.
-all
joy, all peace, all finances, all ministry, lost loved ones…etc, all passion,
all dreams
20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they
drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.”
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